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Spotify is making another great podcasting acquisition. This time, he’s buying podcast hosting company Megaphone for $ 235 million, according to a source close to the business. The deal doesn’t affect Spotify’s own podcasts – it has already hosted its shows on Megaphone – but it does mean more shows will have access to Spotify’s proprietary ad insertion technology, called Streaming Ad Insertion.
SAI works the same as typical dynamic podcast ads, which are targeted based on a listener. But in the case of Spotify, the ads are inserted in real time instead of being exchanged before listening. This means that Spotify’s system makes real-time decisions about which ads a specific listener should hear based on their data and also based on the goals of the different ad offers that Spotify is running.
This acquisition means that all podcasts currently hosted on Megaphone will have access to SAI after the deal is closed. No other hosting service offers SAI, so if podcasts or advertisers want to target their ads to Spotify data and potentially better reach listeners, they’ll have to pay to host their show on Megaphone, or they’ll have to pay Megaphone for distribute the advertisements to them. Megaphone has over 5,500 shows hosted on the platform by major publishers such as Slate, iHeartMedia, Disney, and Vox Media.
With Megaphone, Spotify now has a complete podcasting ecosystem: a network of exclusive shows, a podcast player, podcast creation software, a hosting company, and its own ad sales team.
This flashy acquisition follows other high-profile deals including Gimlet Media for $ 200 million, Parcast for $ 56 million, The Ringer for $ 196 million, Anchor for $ 140 million and over $ 100 million. dollars for exclusive distribution and advertising sales for The Joe Rogan experience. Spotify only really entered the podcasting world for good in 2019, and it’s already buying its way to domination.
Update 10/11 at 9:23 am ET: Updated to reflect the current Megaphone emission count of 5,500.
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